ECB Day, Biden’s Critical 100 Days, Yellen’s Treasury: Eco Day

(Bloomberg) -- Welcome to Thursday, Europe. Here’s the latest news and analysis from Bloomberg Economics to help you start the day:

• European Central Bank officials will confront a frustrating outlook when they hold their first policy meeting of the year on Thursday, as stricter lockdowns and a slow vaccine rollout across the region threaten to leave the economy jammed up for months on end
• Even the world’s most egalitarian region is grappling with a rising gap between rich and poor
• Interest-rate increases in Ukraine look like an ever-more-distant prospect
• Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey said that the U.K. economy is learning to adapt to lockdowns to contain the coronavirus. Bailey also said he’s wondering what the EU’s request for equivalence on financial services will mean for the U.K.
• Joe Biden’s 100-day charge is probably the most critical in a generation, write Carl Riccadonna and Yelena Shulyatyeva. Here’s a look at the U.S. economy in charts
• The Bank of Japan left its main policy unchanged after forecasting the economy will regain more lost growth than previously thought once it starts to recover from the current state of emergency
• Brazil’s central bank moved closer to raising the benchmark interest rate from a record low as inflation forecasts rise toward target and price shocks last longer than expected
• The latest episode of Stephanomics offers a sneak preview of what to expect from new Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen